The Roman Catholic Church reconciled itself to evolutionary theory about a hundred twenty, hundred fifty years ago.

So did pretty much all of the other mainline churches.

Belief in biblical literalism is not, and never has been, a common belief among Christians. Historival incidents of suppression of new ideas by traditional Christian denominations usually derive from specific contradicitions of that denomination's interpretation of scripture, not from a generic belief that scripture is beyond interpretation. The leadership of the Catholic, Orthodox, and most protestant sects typically includes a cross section of social elites, including aristocrats, the educated middle class, and intellectuals, such as all of these might exist in a given society.

Biblical literalism is a belief of certain kinds of Evangelical protestantism, and the United States is the only country in the world where these people compose a large fraction of the population and have a corresponding large share of political power. I have heard, however, that there are enough Evangelicals in South Korea, Australia, and a few South American countries to cause some political disturbances.

Literalism is a fundamentally anti-intellectual stance, as western civilization understands such things. The founders of the original Christian churches, after the sect gained enough members to exist out of hiding in major cities, were people schooled in Greek and Roman classical philosophy. They would have found the notion of a text existing beyond human interpretation to be laughable.

That's kind of a fundamental issue, isn't it? What is arguably the most powerful single political faction in the United States is intent on replacing the secular philosophy that underlies our pulitical system and culture with one they consider to be more "spiritual."

This is not a minor matter. And, of course, it became a political issue because the Evangelical political movement made it one. Other religious groups have worked out ways to get their beliefs incorporated into law by, essentially, "secularizing" them. Which, of course, is every belief system's right under the constitution.